Somerset school board votes to combine superintendent, business manager posts

Wednesday

Feb 26, 2014 at 10:57 PM

The Somerset School Committee will advertise for a combined superintendent-business manager job after failing to reach agreement last month on a combined superintendent position with the regional school district.

Michael Holtzman Herald News Staff Reporter @MDHoltzman

SOMERSET — The Somerset School Committee will advertise for a combined superintendent-business manager job after failing to reach agreement last month on a combined superintendent position with the regional school district.

Chairman Robert Camara, who favored the change, said the posting and language should be set by Friday, with a March 21 deadline for interested candidates to apply to lead the kindergarten-through-Grade 8 district starting on July 1.

Camara will head the search committee and said the Massachusetts Association of School Committees will post the job on its website and the School Spring national database.

After more than two hours of discussion in executive session on Tuesday night, the 3-2 vote to advertise for a superintendent-business manager marked a change in tack for the board.

In December, the committee voted not to extend the $131,000 contract of its nine-year superintendent, Richard Medeiros. That happened after the Somerset Berkley Regional District school board, which paid one-third of Medeiros’ salary, could not agree on a contract extension with Medeiros beyond June 30.

The K-8 school district has paid Medeiros’ full salary this fiscal year, while the regional district bumped Berkley Superintendent Thomas Lynch’s $135,000 salary to $160,000 to serve as interim regional superintendent.

One month ago at a joint meeting, the Somerset School Committee voted 3-2 to pursue a joint superintendency with the regional district. However, the regional committee, which included two Somerset school board members, voted 5-2 against starting a search for the shared position.

The regional committee wanted Lynch in charge of all three districts, including his Berkley K-8 district.

Now, it appears that the Somerset district will no longer employ Director of Business and Finance Marc Furtado, who’s also worked for both the Somerset and regional districts, with Somerset paying two-thirds of his salary.

“His contract is up June 30 and is not being renewed,” Camara said of the two-thirds portion paid by the Somerset district.

He said the committee spoke with Furtado in executive session about the decision.

“That’s what he told me,” Furtado said, adding that he’s “been restructured out of a job.”

He was hired a little more than two years ago at a salary of $106,000.

“It’s not feasible for the region to pick up my salary,” Furtado said.

A Warren, R.I., resident who’s worked for the Westport and Attleboro school systems, Furtado said, “I’m going to serve the district until June 30 and pursue other opportunities.”

The latest 3-2 vote did not reflect comments made by Somerset School Committee members over the past couple of months, since they unanimously voted to restructure the superintendent’s job to make it affordable.

According to the official vote, members Donald Rebello, Victor Machado and Camara voted in the majority to form a superintendent-business manager job.

Vice Chairman Jamison Souza and committee member Lori Rothwell opposed it. Those two members, when voting against a shared Somerset-regional superintendent, said there wasn’t enough time to conduct a full search, and have said they favored a combined administrative job for the K-8 district.

Rebello, in particular, called out Souza and Rothwell for voting against the shared superintendency, which was a basis of the regional district that was formed in 2011. Machado also strongly supported a shared superintendency.

“A shared superintendent is the way to go,” Camara said. “But they (the regional committee) weren’t ready to negotiate … we weren’t going to get a majority to support us.”

As the end of the school year and Medeiros’ contract approached, Camara said, “We just could not delay the process on the K-8 side.”

He said they needed continuity and leadership, and said he believes this is the right step toward providing it.

He was asked if extending the contract of Medeiros — who has finalist interviews this week for the top administrative jobs of two area school districts — would have accomplished that.